Another of the three foreigners who, during the earlier years
of the Queen's reign, helped to govern England has passed away. The Prince Consort and Baron Stockmar are gone, and on Saturday morning M. Sylvain Van de Weyer died in Arlington Street. The son of an obscure civilian at Amsterdam, M. Van de Weyer rose as a journalist and barrister to a position in which he was able to take a leading part in the disastrous separation of Belgium from Holland, —a separation which has made both king- doms nearly powerless, and reduced the former into a sort of outlying estate of the Papacy. M. Van de Weyer was, however, a patriot ; he served a sceptical King with fidelity, and as the representative of that King, his advice was for years of serious weight in English politics. His marriage with Miss Bates gave him wealth, and his long residence made him ultimately an Englishman, with just that kind of detachment of mind which Englishmen so sadly lack. A scholar, and even a biblio- phile, he was also an acute man of the world, who knew Europe thoroughly, and could give to English royalties and statesmen the non-insular information they find it so difficult to acquire. He is a loss to the whole West.
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